GEF assistance to address adaptation: the strategic priority on adaptation, the LDCF and the SCCF

Presented by GEF

Richard Hosier, GEF, called for enhancing the exchange of lessons learned from adaptation activities.

Bonizella Biagini, GEF, explained that through the Least Developing Country Fund (LDCF), the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) and the Adaptation Fund, the GEF helps to raise countries’ awareness of their vulnerabilities and build adaptive capacity. She stressed the project proponent has to demonstrate that impacts of climate change impose an additional cost on vulnerable countries in achieving their development goals. She listed the approved projects, as well as those in the pipeline, noting the approval of the first three SCCF projects.

Margaret Sangarwe, Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Zimbabwe, described a GEF project aimed at enhancing the adaptation capacity in agricultural and pastoral systems. She explained the project is currently at the formulation stage, stressing that stakeholder participation is crucial. She listed current maladaptive coping strategies such as denial of education, crime, deforestation, and wild life poaching. She emphasized that expenditure on drought relief and recovery has become substantial, however assistance has not enhanced community capacity to deal with future droughts.

Ietitaia Setu Taule’alo, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Samoa, said his country is one of the four selected by UNDP/GEF to implement its community-based adaptation programme. He indicated that the project aims at developing a framework to respond to community-based needs and mainstream lessons learned.

Alexandre Cabral, Ministry of Natural Resources, Guinea Bissau, described a project on adaptation to climate and coastal changes in five west African countries affected by erosion, disappearance of mangroves, sea level rise and sand mining. He said the objective is to carry out pilot protection actions such as mangrove plantation in priority sites to demonstrate adaptation measures and formulate adaptation strategies in coastal areas.

Discussion: participants addressed difficulties in calculating the additional cost related to adaptation, and mixing traditional with modern techniques for early warning systems.

Margaret Sangarwe, Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Zimbabwe, said climate change scenarios suggest rainfall could decline up to 15% by 2080 in Zimbabwe and lead to decline in food production, and increase food insecurity and pressure on natural resources

Ratemo Michieka, National Environment Management Authority, Kenya, stressed the importance of holding stakeholder workshops with local farmers, community leaders, district based government staff and NGOs to identify major climate vulnerabilities

Paul Waide, International Energy Agency, discussed the relevance of energy efficiency standards and labeling (S&L) to climate change, including their ability to create a dynamic market, and stressed the need for expanded coverage.

Shane Holt, Australian Greenhouse Office, used the example of refrigerators to demonstrate the increase of energy efficiency through S&L and stressed it is an economically and environmentally effective mitigation measure.

John Mollet, International Copper Association, highlighted India’s S&L programmes as a profit-based business case for energy efficiency and stressed the potential of S&L as a vital tool of energy efficiency policies.

Kaouther Lihidheb, National Agency for Energy Conservation, Tunisia, noted that Tunisia’s electricity consumption had been increasing annually by 8.5% and that refrigeration represents 41% of total household electricity consumption, and outlined a governmental energy efficiency programme focused on refrigeration.

On international initiatives to increase appliance energy efficiency, Christine Egan, Collaborative Labeling and Appliance Standards Program, stressed that S&L is the most cost-effective way to reduce energy use and GHG emissions. She called for the adoption of a global framework on S&L.

John Mollet, International Copper Association, said the energy efficiency S&L for four products, including refrigerators and airconditioners, would deliver cumulative reduction of more than 500 megatonnes of C02 by 2020

Benoit Lebot, UNDP, addressed UNDP/GEF’s interest in promoting the global removal of barriers to energy efficiency and conservation and stressed the goal of phasing out inefficient technologies through international collaboration on S&L.

Kawther Lihidheb, National Agency for Energy Conservation, stressed Energy consumption standards as essential for appliances, saying Tunisia will follow the same process with air conditioning as refrigeration

Christine Egan, CLASP, stated that regulations governing the manufacture and distribution of products should be better aligned and coordinated globally to achieve best practice and innovation

Andre Largo, Ministry of External Affairs, Brazil, noted that Kyoto’s entry into force presents a new opportunity to introduce incentives for decreasing deforestation.

Ambassador Robert Aisi, Papua New Guinea, lamented that industrialized nations have not followed through on pledged assistance and have opposed inclusion of mechanisms that would help combat deforestation. He stressed the potential of carbon markets in delivering needed incentives.

Virgílio Viana, Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Development, Brazil, outlined deforestation reduction opportunities in Amazonas, and noted that under “business as usual” conditions, only a small core of the Amazon will remain by 2030.

Yaw Osafo, Ghana, cautioned that his country risks being transformed from a sink to a source of emissions, and emphasized that compensated reduction with a “break even price” of $30/tonne would make reducing deforestation an economically viable alternative.

Greg Asner, Carnegie Institution of Washington, said high resolution remote sensing techniques exist that can monitor deforestation, and emphasized transparency and verifiability.

Annie Petsonk, Environmental Defense, noted several legal avenues available to develop compensated reduction under the UNFCCC and Kyoto that would provide incentives to halt deforestation, and stressed that enforcement alone is insufficient.

Discussion: participants expressed concern regarding: the cumulative effects of deforestation from other land uses; the determination of compensation; and how these funds would reach the local level.

Virgílio M Viana, Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Development, Brazil, described the Zona Franca Verde program, which has lead to a 39% decrease in deforestation, equivalent to US$3 billion in emissions reductions. He added that these funds could be invested in forest conservation and payment for environmental services

Yaw Osafo said that in Ghana, compensated reduction of deforestation holds the most promise for off-reserve areas in high forests of the South

William Westermeyer, Global Climate Observation System (GCOS), described the status and future direction of the GCOS Regional Workshop Programme, reviewed some of their recommendations, and identified related COP decisions. He outlined the Regional Action Plan for South and Southwest Asia and called for data rescue, integration of historical data and more GCOS Surface Network (GSN) stations.

Howard Diamond, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, provided an overview of the GCOS System Improvement Programme and commended the improved Global System Information Center website. He described the Pacific Island Global Observing System’s objective of enhancing Pacific Climate Observations.

Paul Mason, GCOS Steering Committee, described the Cooperation Mechanism and the SBSTA’s proposals for an improved funding mechanism.

Joan Fitzpatrick, Group on Earth Observations (GEO), described the GEO and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems.

Howard Diamond, NOAA, describes some of the technical support missions to GSN stations

Steven Hendrie, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, noted the launch of the book titled “Unikkaaqatigiit-Putting a Human Face on Climate Change”.

Jose Kusugak, President, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, said the book describes how the Inuit are affected by climate change, their adaptation efforts, and future adaptation needs. He underscored the importance of incorporating cultural and local knowledge components into adaptation strategies.

Mucktar Akumalik, Arctic Bay, Nunavut, highlighted that the decrease and late arrival of snow in his community had caused numerous economic hardships.

Naalak Nappaluk, Kangiqsujuak, Nunavik, highlighted a number of effects of climate change on his community such as a decease in traditional food sources and health problems.

Pauline Anderson, Northwest River, Nunatsiavut, outlined the changes taking place in his community due to climate change such as the decreased availability of plant and animal food and loss of traditional snow travel routes.

Jose Kusugak, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, stated that if we can put a man on the moon, we can fix the Arctic

John Keogak, Sachs Harbour, Inuvialuit, explained that the impacts of climate change has caused a devastating impact on the region, including the loss of many cultural sites, and has required the relocation of entire communities.

Discussion: participants discussed the effects of climate change on indigenous communities and the need to consider adaptation in terms of sustainable livelihoods as well as technology transfer.

Mucktar Akumalik, Arctic Bay, Nunavut, noted that the decrease in snow fall due to climate change has affected the building of igloos forcing the community to switch to tents for shelter

Steve Thorne, SouthSouthNorth, described the Kuyasa project, which upgrades low cost housing, as delivering high sustainable development benefits. He highlighted lessons learned, including that although projects with many beneficiaries may be process heavy, they provide security and ownership co-benefits. He added that the Gold Standard programme can deliver sustainable development benefits.

On capacity development for CDM in the South, Thais Corral, Human Development Network (REDEH), said they are developing institutional capacity, capacity of their partners, and southern capacity, in order to pursue structural poverty reduction; deliver projects to mitigate global GHG emissions, and assist communities in adapting to climate change.

On adaptation, Saleemul Huq, International Institute for Environment and Development, introduced the SSNs new adaptation methodology, an adaptation project protocol for community-based adaptation.

Christopher Lamport, Ministry of Environment, Austria, described Austria’s climate strategy, and noted that flexible mechanisms such as JI and CDM have played a major role towards the target of reducing emissions by 13%. He indicated that focus project categories include combined heat and power, energy efficiency, and landfill gas.

Alexandra Amerstorfer, Kommunalkredit, Austria, stressed the importance of including small-scale projects in their CDM portfolio, and encouraged the submission of eligible projects, particularly those that: fall within the priority categories; have a detailed business plan; demonstrate financial feasibility; and hold potential for regional development. She said the negotiation of a contract is based on market price, but that factors such as risk and project quality are also relevant. She added that project pre-payment of up to 30% may be possible. She indicated that 110 projects are in the pipeline, and noted the emerging importance of the Indian and Chinese markets for CDM projects.

Alexandra Amerstorfer, Kommunalkredit, Austria, described the importance national legislation, Kyoto mechanisms and the Marrakech Accords for the Austrian JI/CDM project

Christopher Lamport, Ministry of Environment, Austria, stated that although Austria’s climate strategy gives priority to domestic measures, carrying co-benefits such as job creation and air quality, JI and CDP projects have helped to achieve their goals

Akio Morishima, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), stated that Asian perspectives are not adequately addressed in the Kyoto Protocol and explained that IGES’ policy dialogue aims at surveying the opinion of Asian stakeholders on the post 2012 regime.

Ancha Srinivasan, IGES, outlined the interests that emerged from the IGES dialogues on the climate regime beyond 2012, including streamling the CDM and facilitating technology transfer, and noted country differences in priority areas.

Xuedu Lu, Chinese Academy of Science and Technology, said making more efficient technology available would achieve large scale emissions reductions at a low cost.

Akio Morishima, IGES Board Chairman, said the objectives of these consultations was to ascertain the concerns, interests and priorities of countries in relation to the future climate regime

S. K. Joshi, Ministry of Environment and Forests, India, called for a focus on enabling environments and adaptive research.

Jyoti Parikh, Integrated Research and Action for Development, noted that emissions and adaptive needs do not correlate.

Liana Bratiasida, Ministry of Environment, Indonesia, said the Kyoto Protocol must be extended in order to have credibility in the multilateral process. Tae Yong Jung, IGES, called for focusing on joint technology initiatives rather than on technology transfer.